Perhaps it was simply just having watched, along with the rest of us, Andy
Murray’s heroic failure in Melbourne, or maybe the wound caused by Ross
County’s 2-0 victory in the Scottish Cup semi-final in 2010 has yet to heal.

Either way, for someone whose team sits four points clear at the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League after 12 consecutive wins, Celtic manager Neil Lennon was decidedly downbeat as he looked ahead to Sunday’s Scottish Communities League Cup semi-final against Falkirk at Hampden.

Indeed, he volunteered the notion that the Glasgow giants could lose and again at Inverness in the Scottish Cup next weekend before they return to league action against Hearts at Tynecastle in a fortnight.

“I hope our game isn’t as close as Andy Murray’s - or as long,” he said. “Falkirk will come with nothing to lose. I’d imagine we’ll be clear favourites for the game but we’ve seen it so many times and it can bite back at you. It’s a dangerous game and you wonder if their name is on it having beaten Rangers and Dundee United along the way.

“They’re a good team, unbeaten in a wee while, and play with a bit if vigour. They’re a young team, well-organised, and play good football.

“[Farid El Alagui] has also scored a lot of goals for them this season so we’re going to be up against it.

“In these games if you’re not at your best you can get done. Semi-finals are tight, tense games because you’re just one step away from the final.

“That’s what can make them such anxious affairs because you’re almost there and just can’t touch it yet.

“We’ll try and be positive with the players and prepare them as best we can. They’re quietly confident, and rightly so on the back of this really good run they’ve put together.

“But it’s a neutral ground, a different ball, different opposition – so they’ll have to adapt very quickly.”

Falkirk manager Steven Pressley admitted this week that he and Lennon had enjoyed a frosty relationship when the former became his team-mate at Parkhead in 2006, and the Irishman confirmed as much. “We had a few barneys on the pitch,” he said. “I wasn’t happy with some of the stuff he came out and said publicly, particularly on the spitting incident with Rudi Skacel where I was proved right and he was proved wrong.

“That’s only the problem I ever had with him. He said I used to blame everybody else, that it was always me in the middle of it, like, ‘poor me, poor me.’ Fortunately, [a newspaper] printed the photo of [Rudi] Skacel spitting at me.”

When it was put to him that Pressley had a habit of rubbing rival managers up the wrong way, Lennon replied: “I think we all do when we start. We come in and think we can reinvent the wheel, that we know best.Over time we look at our characteristics and things we can improve on.”

Lennon seems more comfortable, stoical even, when he patrols the touchline nowadays but he takes nothing for granted. “Don’t speak too soon!” he joked. “The bad run we had was a real testing time. You question your temperament and character and, basically, your managerial skills so to come out the other side and go on this run is very satisfying, but there is still a lot of football to go.

“You do get more comfortable the longer you’re in the job. I wouldn’t say you ever really relax, but you can probably deal with the bad moments better than you could before.

“When you’re the manager, you pick the team and if you have a talented squad of players who aren’t performing then you have to look at yourself and ask what you’re doing wrong or what you’re not doing as well as you did maybe the previous season? You try to put your finger on it and improve on it.”

Swedish defender Daniel Majstorovic comes back into contention after recovering from a fractured cheekbone sustained against St Johnstone last month, but Nigerian midfielder Rabiu Ibrahim, signed from PSV Eindhoven, is ineligible because his international clearance has yet to arrive. Lennon made it clear, though, that he will not be resting players tomorrow, fielding his strongest side as a show of respect to his First

Division opponents. “We might make a couple of changes but we have a good squad to pick from and we’ll just try to pick a team that we think will win the game,” he said.

Celtic are the only club capable of making a clean sweep of all three domestic trophies but, with the first of the campaign in his sights, Lennon dismisses the prospect as unrealistic.

“Listen the last team to do it at Celtic was Martin [O’Neill]’s team [in 2001], which cost a lot of money. And the last team before that was probably the Lisbon Lions, so you can see that it’s almost an impossible thing to do.”

Meanwhile Lennon claimed Jorge Molina is just one of several players he is having trouble in attracting to Celtic.

The 29-year-old Real Betis striker is the latest player to be linked with a move to the Parkhead club before the transfer window closes on Tuesday.

The Celtic manager was asked what was happening with Molina. “Not a lot,” he replied. “I am no further down the line with any enquiries for players. It’s basically as you were. If the window shuts and we go with the squad we have then fine. You are always looking to strengthen if you can but at the moment it is looking very difficult.”

Sunday's key battles

Darren Dods v Gary Hooper

Coming on for 37, Dods is the old head who organises the rest of the Bairns. Lack of pace is not an issue for the veteran, who never had any to begin with. His experience makes him a yard quicker than most opponents in any case, but he will have his work cut out trying to shut out Hooper. Celtic’s leading marksman will be looking to add to the 16 goals he has already claimed this season, eight of which have come in his last 12 games.

Mark Millar v Scott Brown

Millar will have a point to prove against his former club. The 23 year-old made more appearances for the Scotland Under-21 side – one – than he did for Celtic’s first team in his five years at Parkhead. However, he will look to use the experience gained on loan to Hungarians Ujpest during that time as he attempts to halt the rampaging runs of Celtic skipper Brown. The Scotland star’s stunning strike against St Mirren last weekend, however, suggested he is back to his best, which could be bad news for the Bairns.

Farid El Alagui v Charlie Mulgrew

The Moroccan’s 21 goals from 26 games have made him the hottest property in the First Division. El Alagui has also been a cup specialist, scoring in every cup tie Falkirk have played this season, including a double in the 3-2 win over Rangers and another in the quarter-final victory against Dundee United. Mulgrew has, arguably, been Celtic’s most consistent performer this season but he could find El Alagui as tricky as any SPL striker.